As computing technology has advanced, computers have become increasingly coupled together via various networks. This increased ability to communicate with other computers provides many advantages, allowing data to be quickly communicated to friends, colleagues, or even strangers throughout the world.
One specific use of this increased communication ability is for the sale of goods. Individual companies can make their goods available for sale over a network, such as the Internet, allowing individual users to view descriptions of, and purchase, the goods at their leisure. Additionally, on-line auction houses have also been established, allowing individual users to list various goods for sale and allow other users to bid on those goods.
However, problems exist in attempting to use these mechanisms for the sale of goods in environments where multiple different sellers attempt to sell the same good. Mechanisms to support the offer for sale of the same good by multiple different sellers and to ensure accurate and up-to-date information regarding the goods (e.g., whether the good has been sold by one of the sellers) do not currently exist. It would thus be desirable to have a technique to improve the ability of multiple different sellers to offer the same good for sale.